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In this guest post, Anupama Dathan—health research assistant for ONE—writes about a new report that examines global commitments to ending the AIDS pandemic. With world leaders calling for ambitious goals like an AIDS-free generation and achieving the beginning of the end of AIDS, ONE and many of its partners in the scientific and advocacy communities have been working to define this vision. Also known as the AIDS tipping point, the beginning of the end of AIDS occurs when the number of people newly added to treatment in any given year is equal to or exceeds the number of people newly infected with HIV. To track global progress towards this point, ONE recently released a new report, called The Beginning of the End? Tracking Global Commitments on AIDS. This new report is the second in a series of annual AIDS accountability reports. The good news in the report is that the world is making steady progress. 1.6 million people around the world received AIDS treatment for the first time in 2012, compared with 2.3 million people who were newly infected. At first glance, this is a vast improvement from just a decade ago, when the epidemic was raging out of control, as more than 3 million people were newly infected per year and almost no one was added to treatment. A new report from ONE finds that funding needs to be scaled up appropriately to support research on new, diverse HIV and AIDS interventions. Credit: PATH And though it is a vast improvement, a closer look also reveals it is very one-sided. Despite a reduction in the number of new HIV infections, most of the progress stems from an annual accelerations in the number of people newly accessing treatment each year. Truly ending the AIDS epidemic will be next to impossible without also dramatically reducing new HIV infections, a feat that requires renewed attention to HIV prevention measures. This is why ONE is calling for increased funding and support for HIV research and development (R&D). AIDS treatment mechanisms, such as antiretroviral drugs (ARVs), came into existence thanks to focused, well-funded research. This same focus must now be paid to HIV prevention. Unfortunately, we are headed in the opposite direction. Instead of well-funded research, we’re seeing a steady decline in HIV R&D funding, something that has hindered the development of new prevention tools that could combat HIV even more effectively. A few promising trials of tools and products are in progress, but funding needs to be scaled up appropriately to support research on new, diverse interventions. Innovations like an HIV preventive vaccine have yet to be found. Arguments can be made that the focus should be on improving access to existing prevention mechanisms—pre-exposure prophylaxis, male and female condoms, prevention of mother-to-child transmission, to name a few. While this is a valid point, existing mechanisms are only part of the solution. A recent study estimated that depending on its characteristics and level of coverage, an AIDS vaccine could reduce the number of new infections by five to 10 million between 2020 and 2030 while also saving between $46 billion to $95 billion in averted costs of ARV provision. More research is also needed to test recently discovered prevention mechanisms, including the use of treatment-as-prevention. It’s encouraging to see the progress the world is making towards the beginning of the end of AIDS, but we need to remember that treatment alone isn’t enough. More research into effective ways to prevent AIDS is urgently needed, which is why ONE calls for increased R&D funding in this latest report. Without it, the path to the end of AIDS will be longer, more expensive, and, most of all, will cost many millions more lives.

In this guest post, Jaclyn Schiff—American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (ASTMH) Director of Communications—highlights news in global health research presented during the recent ASTMH Annual Meeting. Just two week ago, more than 3,700 attendees gathered in Washington, DC, to announce, share, and discuss the latest research findings on a broad range of global health issues, including neglected tropical diseases, surgery in the developing world, and malaria. Just two week ago, more than 3,700 attendees gathered in Washington, DC, to announce, share, and discuss the latest research findings on a broad range of global health issues at the ASTMH Annual Meeting. Credit: ASTMH. Though the meeting attracted one of the largest crowds ever, the absence—due to federal travel budget cuts—of key researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institutes of Health, the Army, and Navy was noticeable. This also significantly affected the Annual Meeting last year, and the cuts persist with no sign of letting up. One unfortunate consequence is that scientific collaboration suffers at the Annual Meeting and at countless other research-focused gatherings. When science is stifled, we all lose out. But our colleagues who were able to make it, got on with it, and the media reported extensively on their findings. News coming out of the Annual Meeting covered a lot of ground—from gender bias in global health science to plague surveillance involving traditional healers in Uganda. So just in case you weren’t able to take it all in, here are three critical pieces of research from this year’s meeting: Potential danger from the Plasmodium vivax parasite: The malaria vector may be rapidly evolving to overcome the natural resistance conferred by a blood type found in millions of Africans. Science Now reported on the findings: To enter human blood cells, the parasite usually uses the so-called Duffy blood group protein, a protein on the surface of red blood cells. But because up to 95 percent of the population across sub-Saharan Africa lacks the protein—a genetic trait called “Duffy negative”—they have long been thought to be protected from infection. Yet reports have emerged in recent years of Duffy-negative people who are nevertheless infected with vivax malaria. “If vivax can establish itself in Africa, it can really undo a lot of the malaria progress we’ve made,” study co-author Peter Zimmerman, PhD, of Case Western Reserve University told the New York Times . Moving towards improved hookworm treatments: Researchers presented findings showing that they had completely cured lab animals of parasitic hookworm. To achieve the results, scientists used a modified version of a common human dietary supplement. The findings represent an “important development in our effort to find a safe, affordable and effective way to confront a major global health problem,” the study’s lead researcher said. In its report on the research, Xinhua  notedthat “the only drugs available to treat hookworms in humans were originally developed to combat parasites that infect farm animals.” The study researchers say that current treatments are not effective enough and that drug- resistance is rising. Strange dengue patterns in the United States: As dengue fever continues to spread from Key West north into the Florida mainland, it remains a mystery as to why this dangerous mosquito-borne illness is not yet common around Tucson, Arizona—even though outbreaks routinely occur in nearby Mexico and mosquitoes that can carry dengue are now common in the state. As The Verge reports, researchers think human or biological factors somehow explain why dengue hasn’t spread in Tucson. "It may be that the temperatures in Tucson are so hot," Mary Hayden, a scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, told the BBC . She added “the relative humidity is so low that the mosquitoes may not be able to survive in that climate long enough for the virus to cycle within them.” Additional highlights, original news stories, and interviews are available on the #TropMed2013 Tumblr.

In this regular feature on Breakthroughs, we highlight some of the most interesting reads in global health research from the past week. The European Parliament has approved Horizon 2020—the European Union's funding program for research and innovation from 2014 through 2020. The first calls for proposals are scheduled for Dec. 11, pending formal agreement from EU member states. US lawmakers are taking steps to free US Food and Drug Administration user fees from sequestration cuts. A recent congressional briefing examined progress in developing new HIV treatment and prevention tools. A new Devex article highlights efforts to ensure that health is included in the post-2015 development framework. The European Commission has invested €8.5 million in a program to reinforce the knowledge infrastructure across neglected diseases and speed the development of new global health tools like vaccines, drugs, and microbicides.

In this regular feature on Breakthroughs, we highlight some of the most interesting reads in global health research from the past week. National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins warns that sequestration and budget cuts may be putting gains in science, technology and medicine at risk. In related news, sequestration cuts have reduced federal grants and delayed research projects, restricting the nation’s ability to innovate, according to a survey of organizations representing 300 research universities. On the fifth annual World Pneumonia Day, a call to action in The Lancet Global Health asks for new innovations to transform pneumonia diagnosis and treatment. From December 3 to 5, the World Health Organization and Member States will evaluate and assess new innovative mechanisms to coordinate and fund global health research and development. GHTC member the Global Health Innovative Technology Fund has granted $5.7 million to six global partnerships working on innovative drugs and vaccines against malaria, tuberculosis, and Chagas disease.